Key 12.
Talking about the revolution.
All things are connected.
When enough monkeys on one island,
Or landmass,
Learn a new trick,
A message ripples around the collected mind of all monkeys.
All species share a group mind,
Of course,
And all group minds pool their knowledge,
Wisdom and experience into the newer sphere.
In Indonesia,
Long-tailed macaques have lived alongside humans for millennia,
And as a result have picked up a trick or two.
These days they catch fish with their hands from the sides of rivers.
They have even been known to grab bananas out of the hands of tourists.
Halfway around the world in Mexico,
The spider monkeys spend their lives in the tree tops.
They rarely come to the ground,
So avoiding predators.
Their prehensile tail is like a fifth limb,
And they can hang upside down using their tail alone.
They mainly eat plant-based foods like fruit,
Nuts and even flowers.
After getting bored a few hundred years ago,
They added birds' eggs and insects to their diet.
Like all primates,
They like variety and to eat well and often.
One day,
An enterprising young spider monkey,
Dangled by its tail and feet on a branch,
Hanging over a fast-running stream.
He put his hands into the water and felt something brush past them.
He started thrashing his hands around in the water,
And after a few minutes he grabbed what he didn't know was called a fish.
He bit into it and thought,
Now that's a bit tasty.
Over in Indonesia,
The fish had started to get a bit smarter,
And were avoiding the edges of the rivers.
This was about the same time that a young macaque had what she didn't know was called a thought.
She looked behind her and wondered if it was about time she used a bit of upside down thinking too.
She wondered if she should start using her tail a bit more.
